Christ Church | >Re-PHOTO

On the Road to Brixton

On the Road to Brixton is the second post on my walk in Kennington and Brixton on Sunday 6th May 1889. The posts began with Hanover, Belgrave, Chapel, Shops, Taxis.

*Christ Church, Brixton Rd, Kennington, Lambeth, 1989 89-5c-31*

This remarkable Grade II* listed building in a composite of Art Nouveau and Byzantine Revival style was designed by Arthur Beresford Pite who was the brother-in-law of the then vicar, Rev William Mowll, whose name is on the adjoining street. It was completed in 1907, though the design dates from the 1890s and the foundation stone was laid in 1898 and the building consecrated in 1902.

It remains in use as an Anglican Church. Some describe it as an architectural monstrosity, but although I think it has a rather split personality it has an overwhelming impact.

*Christ Church, Brixton Rd, Kennington, Lambeth, 1989 89-5c-33*

The church was built on the site of an earlier chapel, Holland Chapel, built as an Independent Chapel around 1823 and sold to the Church of England around 1835 and renamed Christ Church. This was a simpler building with a central bell turret but of some size, seating around a thousand and was demolished in 1899, with worship continuing in a hall behind while the new church was being built.

The Holland Chapel had no graveyard and Christ Church was at first only a chapel in the parish of St Mark’s Kennington where burials took place. Before 1825 all this area was in the parish of St Mary Lambeth, now the Garden Museum next to Lambeth Palace. Christ Church became a parish church in 1856.

*Christ Church, Brixton Rd, Kennington, Lambeth, 1989 89-5c-21*

The building is often open to the public over the centre of the day and the stained glass is said to be spectacular. The interior (which I’ve not photographed) has more of an Art Nouveau feel than the exterior. The building has been considerably altered since 1907. It was built to seat 1,200.

You can just about see one of the many unusual features of the church at the extreme left of the picture, where there is a bell-shaped roof over an external pulpit, added to the building in 1907 at the insistence of the vicar.

*Terrace, Brixton Rd, Kennington, Lambeth, 1989 89-5c-24*

This terrace is opposite Christ Church and runs from 91 to 115 and was built at Bowhill Terrace. Some of the houses are stuccoed like these with others left as plain brick. I chose this pair partly for the bark of the tree at left, but also because of the different treatment of the two doors at the top of the steps leading up to both. I think the steps and their railings are probably a modern replacement.

Many of the houses along Brixton Road were in poor condition in the 1970s and were refurbished by the Greater London Council, mostly becoming social housing

Brixton Road was a Roman Road leading down to the south coast and was at one time known as ‘The way to Brighthelmstone’. Among other former names was Brixton Causeway, an embanked roadway running along the west bank of the ,. That it was also known as ‘The Washway’ perhaps suggests that it was sometime flooded by the river. The river was lowered and built over in 1880, becoming a sewer below the street and the earth extracted used to provide banking at the nearby cricket ground, The Oval.

Modern development beside the road only gathered pace after the building of Vauxhall Bridge in 1816 and acts of parliament for roads south from that meeting with Brixton Road at the Oval.

“Between 1820 and 1824 the whole of the Manor was let to Henry Richard Vassall, third Baron Holland” and developed piecemeal by “builders and speculators” under building leases as brick houses “of at least the third rate“. According to the Survey of London, “This policy of piecemeal letting, especially in the Brixton Road, resulted in unrelated groups of villas and terrace houses which, in spite of the charm of individual members, gave to the whole an untidy and haphazard appearance.” For me it perhaps enhances the street with many of these varied Regency and early Victorian buildings remaining.

*Brixton Rd, Brixton, Lambeth, 1989 89-5c-12*

No 188 is a Grade II listed early mid C19 house. The listing text fails to indicate why this building, listed in 1981, has any particular architectural or historic interest. Originally this was one half of a pair of houses, the other half having been replaced by a dull 4 storey block of flats, Willow Court. Perhaps it was listed to save it from a similar fate.

*Sheet Metal Works, Robsart St, Stockwell, Lambeth, 1989, 89-5c-13*

I made a short detour from Brixton Road down Robsart St which leads west attracted by this three-story works just a few yards down on the north side.

The Brixton Sheet Metal Works building is still there at No 2, but considerably tidied and now Raw Material Music & Media Education who describe the building as a “purpose-built 3-storey building hosts 2 recording studios, computer suite, DJ, music and video production equipment and a live room for performance, workshops and ensemble work.”

It now has a red plaque with the message ‘This project is proudly funded by Comic Relief – All the silly nonsense of Red Nose Day is about the serious business of helping people change their lives – BILLY CONNOLLY 2003‘.

In 1919 No 2 Robsart St was occupied bys W Mason & Co. I think the building was possibly no longer in use in 1989, though there appears to still be a small shop at the left, firmly shut behind wire grilles in my picture.

This walk will continue in a later post.

Shops, Soup Kitchen, Spitalfields 1989

Continuing my posts about my London walk which began with A Walk In the City – March 1989. The previous post was Men At Work, Cherubs, Trees and More.

*Intercity (East) Ltd, Clothing, Shop, City, Tower Hamlets, 1989 89-3e-42*

I was on my way to the East End, and I’m no longer sure where this shop was located, although my contact sheet has Cutler Street, it also has a question mark in front of this. I will have marked up the contact sheets while I still remembered my route (and had probably marked this on a map more or less after I got home) so I will have walked this way towards Leyden Street where I made the next picture. But all I can find on Google about Intercity (East) Ltd is not about clothing stores but trains.

Cutler Street begins on Houndsditch and I think both corners there have been demolished and rebuilt since 1989. It has two more corners where it turns 90 degrees to the right in front of Cutlers Gardens, again both now occupied by more recent buildings.

*6-10 Cobb St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1989 89-3e-43*

From Cutler Street I went up Harrow Place and crossed over Middlesex Street into Cobb Street, going out from the City of London into Tower Hamlets. Much of the area I went through has since been redeveloped but unfortunately I took no pictures.

Blue Bird, Childrens Wear, Cobb St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1989, 89c03-04-71

Blue Bird, a wholesale children’s clothing cash and carry was a shopfront I also photographed in colour on this same walk. This building remains, though was extensively renovated internally around 2020 and 6 at right, Dunmow Trading, is again apparently in the clothing trade, though perhaps the renewed shopfront is a nod to the past hiding some completely different activities.

*Brune St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1989 89-3e-22*

This was a frontage I passed and photographed several times over the years, but never went inside. Founded in 1854 in Leman St, the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor moved to Brune Street (then Butler St) in 1902 and eventually closed in 1992, its work being carried on by Jewish Care in Beaumont Grove, Stepney. I had assumed it was now longer operating when I took this picture in 1989.

*Shopfront, Fournier St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1989 89-3e-11*

Another shopfront I photographed on several occasions and in colour, and it was hard to decide which if any of the businesses were still in operation. Now the whole area has been tidied up and shops like these converted to slightly twee ‘period’ residential properties.

This early 18th century Grade II listed terrace house was sold in 1998 for £236,000, probably just before or after conversion, and in 2021 sold for £3.5million.

*Christ Church, Fournier St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1989 89-3e-13*

The fine row of houses on the south side leading up to Christ Church was still I think occupied and possibly in use by firms in the clothing trade, with M Lustig & Co, Manufacturers of Superior Mens Clothing, Dilal Fashions at No 10 and Gale Furs at 8. Though their days were clearly numbered and all are now high priced residential properties and maintained in considerably better condition. I think all of the street is Grade II listed.

Christ Church is one of Hawksmoor’s masterpieces, built 1723-9 and Grade I listed.

*J Minksy, Fashion St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1989 89-3e-16*

Established in 1902 and supplying textiles and trimmings to the fashion trade, in 1998 J Minsky sold its warehouse premises and began to focus on property investment, selling the textile business in 2005. This was 48 Fashion Street, which is a part of a listed building, but it is very difficult to recognise in this picture, which managed to avoid its more distinctive features, with just the slightest hint on its upper edge.

This walk will be concluded in a further post. The first post on this walk was A Walk In the City – March 1989.

Back to Poplar in 1988

My previous post, Around Devons Road, Bow 1988, ended outside Spratt’s Patent Limited on Morris Road on the south bank of the Limehouse Cut. My walk continued south down Chrisp St to the East India Dock Road, then turning east for around 350 yards and then back up the next main route north, St Leonards Road.

*Plaque, George Lansbury, Poplar Councillors, East India Dock Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-66-positive_2400*

This ‘blue plaque’ is actually and appropriately a red one, placed here by Tower Hamlets Environment Trust with the text ‘Near this place on July 29th 1921 George Lansbury led the people and councillors of Poplar on their march to the high court for the equalisation of rates to poor boroughs.’

According to a long article in Wikipedia, as a youth Lansbury was a supporter of the Liberal Party and particularly Gladstone, but while campaigning for the party he became greatly influenced by leading socialists including William Morris, Eleanor Marx, John Burns and Henry Hyndman, and resigned in 1892, joining the Social Democratic Federation. He worked for a short period as the SDF paid national organiser, leaving that job to return to Bow to take over the running of the sawmill owned by his wife’s family.

Lansbury was first elected to Poplar Borough council in 1903 and in 1910 became MP for Bow and Bromley. He resigned in 1912 in order to fight a by-election in the constituency standing as the ‘Women’s Suffrage and Socialist’ candidate, and although neither Labour nor Liberal parties put up candidates to oppose him he lost to a Conservative candidate with the name of Blair. Reginald Blair had campaigned under the slogan “No Petticoat Government”.

Earlier in 1912 Lansbury had campaigned with others to found a daily socialist newspaper, the Daily Herald, and became editor in 1914. Under his editorship the paper opposed the 1914-18 Great War with Germany and supported the 2017 Russian Revolution.

Lansbury and 29 fellow Poplar councillors were jailed in 1921 for refusing to pay unfair sums from the rates to fund the London County Council, Metropolitan police and other London-wide bodies, instead using the money to support the local poor. Their imprisonment led to public outcry and they were released after six weeks, with a law hastily passed to make richer London boroughs pay their fair share. The campaign made Lansbury a popular hero, and the following year he was elected as local MP with a large majority, holding the seat until his death in 1940.

From 1932 to 1935 Lansbury was the Leader of the Labour Party, but was forced to resign because his Christian pacifist principles became increasingly unacceptable as war with Germany and Italy looked increasingly inevitable. Ernest Bevin put in the final knife, pointing out at conference that his beliefs contradicted the party policy to oppose fascist aggression. Lansbury resigned a few days later, his deputy Clement Atlee becoming leader.

The Falcon, pub, East India Dock Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-51-positive_2400 — *The Falcon, pub, East India Dock Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-51*

The Falcon was at 202a East India Dock from 1869 until it closed in 1985. In my picture you can see some of the windows are boarded up inside and one in Bullivant Street is broken. The first building here was around 1819 and was owned by a Poplar wine merchant, so it may have been a pub earlier. The Truman, Hanbury & Buxton building in the picture dates from 1911 and was demolished shortly after I took this picture.

The A13 here has been widened and nothing on the south side of the road here remains. There are flats on the corner of Bullivant St, a few yards further south than the front of the former pub.

Chinese, East India Dock Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-52-positive_2400 — *Chinese, East India Dock Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-52*

I think this heavily metal shuttered frontage was a Chinese restaurant on the north side of East India Dock Road, probably in the block opposite Bullivant St. Unfortunately I can’t read the two Chinese characters but was intrigued by them and the hanging curtain behind them in this small aperture at the bottom of the doorway.

Tunnel Furnishers Ltd, East India Dock Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-53-positive_2400 — *Tunnel Furnishers Ltd, East India Dock Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-53*

Tunnel Furnishers, a furniture warehouse, was as few doors along East India Dock Road east from The Falcon pub on the corner of Bullivant St. A rather fine 1930s building, this was also lost in the widening of the road not long after I photographed it.

It looks rather like a cinema, but was built in 1938 for the Borough of Poplar as Electricity Showrooms and Offices, replacing an earlier showroom on the site. Closed in 1972, the upper floors continued to be used for training by the London Electricity Board until 1975, after which it was sold for commercial use. Like the rest of the block it was demolished in 1991.

*Lodore St, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-55-positive_2400*

My walk took me into what is now the St Frideswide’s Mission House Conservation Area, where a couple of days earlier I had photographed the Follett St Seamen’s Mission, and I took another, very similar picture of that building, before going further along the street and turning into Lodore St.

The view above is I think from Follett St, and shows the rear of one of the buildings of St Frideswide’s on Lodore St, but I think the archway, probably part of the chapel, has been demolished.

Christ Church, Oxford was originally the church of St. Frideswide’s priory, and St Frideswide’s Mission was set up by members of Christ Church College led by the father of Alice in Wonderland, Dean Liddell. A church was built here around 1892, with the Mission house opened in 1893, devoted to a girl’s and mother’s group.

St Frideswide's, Mission House, Lodore St, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-41-positive_2400 — *St Frideswide’s, Mission House, Lodore St, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-41*

The building was paid for by Miss Catherine Phillimore (1847-1929) , who I think was then well-known as an author as well as a translator of Italian books on artists, a wealthy spinster living at Shiplake House in Henley-on-Thames. A number of her books have been reprinted in recent years and are still available.

St Agnes House, Follett Street Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-43-positive_2400 — *St Agnes House, 18, Follett Street Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7t-43*

This was built to allow the work of the mission to expand in 1899, and also paid for by Catherine Phillimore. In 1900 it became the Hostel of the Poplar Association for Befriending Girls. The washing on the balcony shows it was still in use in 1988.

St Frideswide’s was the inspiration for the TV series ‘Call the Midwife’ and there is a good article on the Poplar London web site which praises the accuracy of the series and its depiction of the Religious Sisters of Saint John the Divine and their midwives, though complaining that it unfairly makes the residents of Poplar look dirty.

My walk will continue in a later post. You can see larger versions of the pictures by clicking on any of them, which will take you to the album where you can browse more.

Spitalfields & Wapping 1987

Spitalfields 87-7m-12-positive_2400 — Interior, Christ Church, Commercial St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1987

I think I had gone to Liverpool St to see off some visitors from Germany who had been staying with us and we arrived at the station long before their train was due to leave for Harwich, so I took them to see Christ Chruch, which was then in the middle of building works. The air was rather dusty and the light a little dim, but the structure was still impressive, and we were greeted by one of the clergy who gave us a short conducted tour.

Christ Church, Commercial St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 198787-7m-22-positive_2400

One of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s great pentagram of London churches much celebrated in the writings of Iain Sinclair, Peter Ackroyd and others it is a building I find more satisfying seen close too and at and angle as in this picture than in more prosaic and distant views.

Peach, Fashion, Commercial St, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 1987 87-7m-21-positive_2400

Close to the church in Commercial Rd was this builidng, housing Peach and several other fashoion and clothing firms as well as The Colour Assembly litho printers. But I didn’t have long to take pictures as our visitors had a train to catch and we made our way back to Liverpool Street.

St Katharine's Way, Wapping, Tower Hamlets, 1987 87-7n-23-positive_2400 — St Katharine’s Way, Wapping, Tower Hamlets, 1987

Afterwards I walked down to St Katherine’s Way, where some of the old warehouse buildings were being gutted and turned into flats, while keeping the basic facades. Miller’s Wharf dates from 1865, but once beyond the front wall is mostly from 1989. A 2 bed flat with a river view is currently for sale at £1.6m should you be looking to move.

Tower Bridge, River Thames, Thames Path, Wapping, Tower Hamlets, 1987 87-7n-36-positive_2400 — Tower Bridge, River Thames, Thames Path, Wapping, Tower Hamlets, 1987

Just a few yards east is a part of the Thames Path from which you can get similar views (though only at ground level) without the huge price tag. Somewhere around this time I went with a group walking along the north bank of the river with the person from Tower Hamlets responsible for footpaths and we found then a number of places where there was supposed to be public access to the river had their gates locked. More recently when I’ve walked along here I think I have been able to access most or all of them.

River Thames, Rotherhithe, Wapping New Stairs,Wapping, Tower Hamlets, 1987 87-7n-31-positive_2400

I think this picture, which has police launches moored in the foreground is taken from Wapping New Stairs – which are of course very old.

Discovery Walk, Wapping Lane, Wapping, Tower Hamlets, 1987 87-7n-53-positive_2400

Little remains of the old London Docks, with new housing covering much of the area, here alongside the ornamental canal which I think includes some sections of the old dock wall. I took two pictures from the road overlooking the canal, one concentrating on the south and the other the north side.

Ornamental canal, News International, Print Works, Wapping, Tower Hamlets, 1987 87-7n-55-positive_2400

The two pictures actually overlap and can be joined to make a narrow panorama, though I don’t think I particular intended this when I took them.

The right of the picture is dominated by the large Wapping printing works of News International, the site of a protests for over a year from 1986-7 by the print unions against Murdoch. The strike ended in what seemed an inevitable defeat for the unions who were trying to prevent the introduction of new technology, moving away from the hot metal of Fleet St which employed several thousand type setters to litho printing which allowed journalists to directly input there stories.

More pictures on page 6 of 1987 London Photos.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.